Weekly Howl 22-11-13

A small portion of despair and enlightenment delivered to your inbox every Friday22 November 2013 ~

Danny Mills, a member of Greg Dyke's FA commission, seems to be full of ideas. The latest one is a call for John Terry to be brought back into the national team. That's the sort of thinking that is sure to revolutionise English football.

---Badge of the week ~ BFC Daugava Daugavpils, LatviaThe club of death. FC Daugava represent all that is dark, sombre and moribund in Latvian football. The coffin represents the certain death of all things, not only substantial but abstract – hope, love, attraction to Carol Vorderman. The team takes the field to the vaulting Death Metal of Imperial Death March while, during the game, their ultras maintain the samba-influenced chant "In the midst of life we are in death (clap-clap-clap)". In case visitors have not guessed the theme, the club mascot is a dead raven nailed to a board and the managers' technical areas have a black border.

There is a definite atmosphere about the place. Residents living near to the Daugava stadium have previously made complaints against the club because the fans are too quiet. The coffin crest is not an aggressive or wilfully controversial use of imagery but symbolises an acceptance of death, which, like another Best Of Status Quo album at Christmas, is inevitable. Daugava's philosophy is one of free, attacking football as there is no need to worry about results because we're all going to die. Cameron Carter

Motherwell v HibernianNovember 26, 1983, Scottish Premier League Motherwell, second bottom with just seven points, welcomed new manager and ex-player Bobby Watson as a replacement for Jock Wallace who had just moved back to Rangers (third bottom with eight points). "He will have our full backing and our support as manager here," wrote chairman Bill Dickie in the match programme. Reassuring to get the chairman's vote of confidence before you've overseen your first game.

Watson himself lowered expectations: "There will be no promises from me – just the hope that something can be done." With a plan like that, what could possibly go wrong? Pretty much everything – Motherwell were relegated and Watson resigned at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, "today's guests" Hibernian revealed themselves as fascinating, counter-cultural pioneers of Scotland's avant-garde elite – eight out of their 11 players who listed a hobby chose Golf. Only Stuart Turnbull (gardening), Robert Thomson (swimming and tennis) and William Jamieson (music) abjured spending their leisure time on the links and doubtless paid the price by being excluded from all golf-related changing room discourse.